I guess my response would be, "Is it unexpected that some (retired, by the way) military leaders dislike Secretary Rumsfeld's handling of the war?"

 

A more important question is for them.  Were they serving, today, would they voice the opinions as they did here?  I've dealt with a great many people who disagreed with their Commander in Chief or Secretary of Defense.  In fact, I was one of them.  Once upon a time, I strongly felt that the Commander in Chief was unfit to continue leading the military (namely President Clinton).  And at least of couple of Admirals in the Navy felt the same way.

 

He was, however, our Commander in Chief, and personal views aside, he issued orders, we followed them.  We didn't even always agree with them.

 

The report I read said it was six generals, as opposed to five.  I'll round up to ten.  So, that's ten who publicly stated their views.  There are probably others who share the view and refuse to announce it to the world.  Even so, how many retired (and active duty) generals are there?  Thousands?  That's a fairly small number.

And remember, there wasn't a test before they received their stars.  Nobody asked, are you Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal?  The military is a fairly reasonable representation of the rest of the country (though many would say it tends to lean a bit more to the right).

 

When the same military voices were speaking out against Senator Kerry, there was a quick attempt to discredit those speaking out.  Where is that attempt now?  (I don't actually want anyone to attempt such a maneuver.  Their service doesn't determine their political views, and they served to defend the right they now use.)